Professor Penny Sparke

About

I am a Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London and the Director of the Modern Interiros Research Centre.

I studied French Literature at the University of Sussex from 1967-1971 and was awarded my PhD in Design History from Brighton Polytechnic in 1975. I taught Design History at Brighton Polytechnic (1975-1982) and the Royal College of Art (1982-1999).

I have given keynote addresses, curated exhibitions, and broadcast and published widely in the subject of Design History, with a special interst in the areas of interiors, identities, gender and taste. My publications include Italian Design from 1860 to the present (1989); The Plastics Age (1990); As Long as It's Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste (1995); An Introduction to Design and Culture, 1900 to the present (3rd edition 2004); Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration (2005); The Modern Interior (2008) and Nature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior (2021). I currently supervise 7 Phd students and I am the Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Design History, as well as a member of the editorial board of RADDAR (Mudac, Lausanne). 

Academic responsibilities

Director, Modern Interiors Research Centre

Qualifications

  • 1971 BA French Literature (University of Sussex)
  • 1975 PhD Theory and Design in the Age of Pop (Brighton Polytechnic)
  • Honarary MA University of the Creative Arts
  • Honorary Senior Fellow Royal College of Art

Research

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Number of items: 93.

Article

Sparke, Penny, Rossi, Cat and Scholze, Jana (2024) 'At home : Panoramas de nos Vies Domestiques' : some ecological reflections. Interiors : Design / Architecture / Culture, pp. 1-18. ISSN (print) 2041-9112 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Sparke, Penny, Rossi, Cat and Scholze, Jana (2024) At home : panoramas de nos vies domestiques : some ecological reflections. Interiors : Design/Architecture/Culture, ISSN (print) 2041-9112 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Sparke, Penny (2020) 'Covered promenades for wet weather' : London's Winter Gardens and People's Palaces, 1870-1900. London Journal, 45(2), pp. 240-269. ISSN (print) 0305-8034

Fisher, Fiona, Lara-Betancourt, Patricia, Kelley, Victoria and Sparke, Penny (2020) Complex interior spaces in London, 1850-1930 : introduction. London Journal, 45(2), pp. 177-188. ISSN (print) 0305-8034

Sparke, Penny (2010) The modern interior: a space, a place or a matter of taste? Interiors: Design, Architecture and Culture, 1(1-2), pp. 7-17. ISSN (print) 2041-9112

Sparke, Penny (2009) Film Review of 'The Truman Show', Peter Weir (1998). Design and culture: the journal of the Design Studies Forum, 1(2), pp. 231-233. ISSN (print) 1754-7075

Sparke, Penny (2009) Book Review of 'The design culture reader' edited by Ben Highmore. Journal of design history, 22(2), pp. 191-193. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Sparke, Penny (2009) Exhibition Review of 'Choosing the chintz'. Blueprint, p. 69. ISSN (print) 0268-4926

Sparke, Penny (2008) The modern interior revisited. Journal of Interior Design, 34(1), v-xii. ISSN (print) 1071-7641

Sparke, Penny (2008) Interior decoration and Haute Couture: links between the developments of the two professions in France and the USA in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - a historiographical analysis. Journal of design history, 21(1), pp. 101-107. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Sparke, Penny (2008) Mobility history from a design historian's perspective: the T2M conference, 2007. The Journal of Transport History, 29(1), pp. 131-135. ISSN (print) 0022-5266

Sparke, Penny (2008) Book Review of 'Designing liners: a history of interior design afloat' by Anne Wealleans. Studies in the Decorative Arts, 16(1), pp. 156-158. ISSN (print) 1069-8825

Aynsley, Jeremy, Kirkham, Patricia and Sparke, Penny (2008) Issues in interior design history: guest editors' introduction. Studies in the Decorative Arts, 16(1), pp. 3-6. ISSN (print) 1069-8825

Sparke, Penny (2006) Book Review of: 'Frances Elkins: interior design' by Stephen M. Salny. Journal of Design History, 19(3), pp. 263-266. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Sparke, Penny (2005) Book Review of : 'Le corbusier: architect and feminist' by Flora Samuel. Journal of Design History, 18(2), pp. 216-218. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Sparke, Penny (2004) Studying the modern home. The Journal of Architecture, 9(4), pp. 413-417. ISSN (print) 1360-2365

Sparke, Penny (2003) The 'ideal' and the 'real' interior in Elsie de Wolfe's The house in good taste of 1913. Journal of design history, 16(1), pp. 63-76. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Sparke, Penny (2000) Always in good taste: the enduring legacy of Elsie de Wolfe. Harvard Design Magazine(11), pp. 16-20. ISSN (print) 1093-4421

Sparke, Penny (1998) The straw donkey: tourist kitsch or proto-design? Craft and design in Italy, 1945-1960. Journal of Design History, 11(1), pp. 59-69. ISSN (print) 0952-4649

Massey, Anne and Sparke, Penny (1985) The myth of the Independent Group. Block(10), pp. 48-56. ISSN (print) 0143-3245

Book

Sparke, Penny (2020) Nature inside : plants and flowers in the modern interior. Yale University Press. 224p. ISBN 9780300217801 (In Press)

Sparke, Penny , Brown, Patricia , Lara-Betancourt, Patricia , Lee, Gini and Taylor, Mark, eds. (2018) Flow: interior, landscape, and architecture in the era of liquid modernity. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury. 352p. ISBN 9781472568038

Lupkin, Paula and Sparke, Penny, eds. (2018) Shaping the American interior : structures, contexts and practices. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. 211p. ISBN 9781138697690

Sparke, Penny and Fisher, Fiona, eds. (2016) The Routledge companion to design studies. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. 553p. (Routledge Companions) ISBN 9781138780507

Massey, Anne and Sparke, Penny, eds. (2013) Biography, identity and the modern interior. Farnham, U.K. : Ashgate. 216p. ISBN 9781409439448

Black, Jonathan , Falkner, David , Fisher, Fiona , Lloyd, Fran , Preston, Rebecca and Sparke, Penny, eds. (2013) Picker House and collection: a late 1960s home for art and design. London, U.K. : Philip Wilson. 211p. ISBN 9781781300053

Andersson, Norbert and Sparke, Penny [Contributor] (2009) Designed in Umea : industrial design education at the Umea Institute of Design, Sweden. Stockholm, Sweden : Infotain & Infobooks. 152p. ISBN 9789170032806

Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, eds. (2009) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. 311p. ISBN 9781847882882

Miller, R. Craig, Sparke, Penny and Mcdermott, Catherine (2009) European design since 1985: shaping the new century. London, U.K. : Merrell Publishers Ltd. 271p. ISBN 9781858943404

Sparke, Penny (2009) Japanese design. New York, U.S.A. : Museum of Modern Art. 144p. (MoMA Design Series) ISBN 9788874394920

Sparke, Penny (2009) The genius of design. London, U.K. : Quadrille Publishing Limited. 256p. ISBN 9781844007530

Sparke, Penny (2008) The modern interior. London, U.K. : Reaktion Books. 240p. ISBN 9781861893727

Sparke, Penny , Martin, Brenda and Keeble, Trevor, eds. (2006) The modern period room : the construction of the exhibited interior 1870 to 1950. London : Routledge. 196p. ISBN 9780415374705

Sparke, Penny (2005) Elsie de Wolfe: the birth of modern interior decoration. New York, USA : Acanthus Press. 372p. ISBN 0926494279

McKellar, Susie and Sparke, Penny, eds. (2004) Interior design and identity. Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press. 218p. ISBN 0719067294

Sparke, Penny (2004) An introduction to design and culture: 1900 to the present. 2nd ed. London, UK : Routledge. 280p. ISBN 0415263352

Martin, Brenda and Sparke, Penny, eds. (2003) Women's places: architecture and design 1860-1960. London, UK : Routledge. 178p. ISBN 0415284481

Sparke, Penny (2002) A century of car design. London, UK : Mitchell Beazley. 256p. ISBN 1840004037

Sparke, Penny (1995) As long as it's pink: the sexual politics of taste. London, U.K. : Pandora. 275p. ISBN 0044409230

Book Section

Fisher, Fiona, Lara-Betancourt, Patricia and Sparke, Penny (2023) New interior identities : inhabiting London’s railway stations, winter gardens, people’s palaces, and department stores, 1830–1920. In: Marinic, Gregory, (ed.) The interior urbanism theory reader. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. ISBN 9781138336308 (In Press)

Sparke, Penny (2022) The domestic setting. In: O'Mahoney, Claire I. R., (ed.) In the modern age. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 89-109. (A cultural history of furniture, 6) ISBN 9781472577887

Sparke, Penny (2021) The natural world. In: Mcguirk, Justin, (ed.) Charlotte Perriand : the modern life. London, U.K. : Design Museum Publishing. pp. 130-157. ISBN 9781872005522

Sparke, Penny (2020) Interior provocations : a conclusion. In: Lasc, Anca I , Schneiderman, Deborah , Suh, Keena , Tehve, Karin , Winton, Alexa G and Zieve, Karyn, (eds.) Interior provocations : history, theory and practice of autonomous interiors. New York, U.S. : Routledge. pp. 233-243. ISBN 9780367418489

Sparke, Penelope (2018) Elsie de Wolfe : a professional interior decorator. In: Lupkin, Paula and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) Shaping the American interior : structures, contexts and practices. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 47-58. ISBN 9781138697690

Sparke, Penny (2018) Introduction. In: Kravis Design Center, (ed.) Industrial design in the modern age. New York, U.S. : Rizzoli Electa. pp. 12-44. ISBN 9780847862405

Sparke, Penny (2018) Taste, gender and the home : before and after Bourdieu. In: Quinn, Malcolm , Beech, David , Lehnert, Michael , Tulloch, Carol and Wilson, Stephen, (eds.) The persistence of taste : art, museums and everyday life after Bourdieu. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 331-344. (Culture, Economy and the Social) ISBN 9781138670983

Sparke, Penny (2016) Arranging the aspidistras : nature, culture and the design of the feminine sphere in the nineteenth century. In: Sparke, Penny and Fisher, Fiona, (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Design Studies. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 186-196. ISBN 9781138780507

Sparke, Penny (2016) Industrial design in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In: Hanks, David A, (ed.) 100 designs for a modern world. New York, USA : Skira Rizzoli. pp. 9-17. ISBN 9780847848324

Sparke, Penny (2015) Paradise in the parlor : cozy corners and potted palms in Western interiors, 1880-1900. In: Potvin, John, (ed.) Oriental interiors: design, identity, space. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 203-218. ISBN 9781472596635

Sparke, Penny and Fisher, Fiona (2015) The spaces and places of British modernity. In: Breward, Christopher , Fisher, Fiona and Wood, Ghislaine, (eds.) British design : tradition and modernity after 1948. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 15-24. ISBN 9781472505378

Sparke, Penny (2014) Ettore Sottsass and critical design in Italy, 1965-1985. In: Lees-Maffei, Grace, (ed.) Made in Italy: rethinking a century of Italian design. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780857853882

Sparke, Penny (2014) Marcel Wanders' interiors in context. In: De Roode, Ingeborg, (ed.) Marcel Wanders: pinned up, 25 years of design. Amsterdam, Netherlands : Stedelijk Museum. pp. 50-55. ISBN 9789491727283

Sparke, Penny (2014) 'Valentine' typewriter, Italy (Ettore Sottsass Jr. and Perry A. King for C. Olivetti S.p.A., 1969). In: Lees-Maffei, Grace, (ed.) Iconic designs: 50 stories about 50 things. London, U.K. : Bloomsbury Visual Arts. pp. 134-137. ISBN 9780857853523

Sparke, Penny (2013) Etats-Unis. In: Forest, Dominique, (ed.) L'Art du design de 1945 a nos jours. Paris, France : Citadelles & Mazenod. ISBN 9782850885624

Sparke, Penny (2013) Grande-Bretagne. In: Forest, Dominique, (ed.) L'Art du design de 1945 a nos jours. Paris, France : Citadelles & Mazenod. ISBN 9782850885624

Sparke, Penny (2013) Japon. In: Forest, Dominique, (ed.) L'Art du design de 1945 a nos jours. Paris, France : Citadelles & Mazenod. ISBN 9782850885624

Sparke, Penny (2013) The Picker House interior. In: Black, Jonathan , Falkner, David , Fisher, Fiona , Lloyd, Fran , Preston, Rebecca and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) The Picker House and collection: a late 1960's home for art and design. London, U.K. : Philip Wilson. pp. 47-70. ISBN 9781781300053

Penner, Barbara and Rice, Charles (2013) The many lives of Red House. In: Massey, Anne and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) Biography, identity and the modern interior. Farnham, U.K. : Ashgate Publishing Ltd. pp. 23-35. ISBN 9781409439448

Black, Jonathan, Fisher, Fiona and Sparke, Penny (2012) Leisure interiors in the work of the Camden Town Group. In: Bonett, Helena , Holt, Ysanne and Munday, Jennifer, (eds.) The Camden Town Group in context. London, U.K. : Tate.

Sparke, Penny (2012) At home with modernity: the new domestic scene. In: Breward, Christopher and Wood, Ghislaine, (eds.) British design from 1948: innovation in the modern age. London, U.K. : V&A Publishing. pp. 120-137. ISBN 9781851776740

Sparke, Penny (2012) The international impact of Finnish design, 1945-67. In: Savolainen, Jukka and Svenskberg, Aila, (eds.) Builders of the future: Finnish design 1945-67. Helsinki, Finland : Designmuseo. pp. 8-19. ISBN 9789529878802

Sparke, Penny (2011) Furnishing the aesthetic interior: manuals and theories. In: Galloway, Stephen and Orr, Lynn Federle, (eds.) The cult of beauty: the aesthetic movement 1860-1900. London, U.K. : V&A Publishing. pp. 124-133. ISBN 9781851776283

Sparke, Penny (2011) Taste and the interior designer. In: Kleinman, Kent, (ed.) After taste: expanded practice in interior design. New York, U.S.A. : Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 9781616890261

Sparke, Penny (2010) Designing 'taste': domestic consumption, modernism and modernity. In: Mattsson, Helena and Wallenstein, Sven-Olov, (eds.) Swedish modernism: architecture, consumption and the welfare state. London, U.K. : Black Dog Publishing Limited. pp. 112-121. ISBN 9781906155988

Sparke, Penny (2010) Framing the modern woman: Elsie de Wolfe, from clothes horse to interior decorator. In: Myzelev, Alla and Potvin, John, (eds.) Fashion, interior design and the contours of modern identity. London, U.K. : Ashgate Publishing Limited. pp. 205-224. ISBN 9780754669159

Sparke, Penny (2009) From production to consumption in twentieth-century design. In: Aynsley, Jeremy and Atkinson, Harriet, (eds.) The Banham lectures: essays on designing the future. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 127-141. ISBN 9781847883025

Sparke, Penny (2009) General introduction. In: Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 1-10. ISBN 9781847882882

Sparke, Penny (2009) Introduction. In: Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 67-78. ISBN 9781847882882

Sparke, Penny (2009) Introduction. In: Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 146-158. ISBN 9781847882882

Sparke, Penny (2009) Italy's new domestic landscape, 1945-1972. In: Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 183-193. ISBN 9781847882882

Sparke, Penny (2009) The LC4 chaise longue by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand, 1928. In: Candlin, Fiona and Guins, Raiford, (eds.) The object reader. London, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 480-482. ISBN 9780415452304

Sparke, Penny (2008) The crafted interior: Elsie de Wolfe and the construction of gendered identity. In: Alfoldy, Sandra and Helland, Janice, (eds.) Craft, space and interior design, 1855-2005. Aldershot, U.K. : Ashgate Publishing Limited. pp. 123-138. ISBN 9780754657064

Sparke, Penny (2008) A modern decorator in the French tradition. In: Black, Jonathan and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Dora Gordine; sculptor, artist, designer. London, UK : Philip Wilson. pp. 145-161. ISBN 9780856676444

Sparke, Penny (2006) Ettore Sottsass, a modern Italian designer. In: Labaco, Ronald T., (ed.) Ettore Sottsass: architect and designer. London, UK : Merrell Publishers. pp. 11-31. ISBN 1858943205

Sparke, Penny (2004) The domestic interior and the construction of self: the New York homes of Elsie de Wolfe. In: McKellar, Susie and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) Interior design and identity. Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press. pp. 72-91. (Studies in design) ISBN 0719067286

Sparke, Penny (2003) Elsie de Wolfe and her female clients, 1905-15: gender, class and the professional interior decorator. In: Martin, Brenda and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) Women's places: architecture and design 1860-1960. London, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 47-68. ISBN 0415284481

Sparke, Penny (2003) Introduction. In: Martin, Brenda and Sparke, Penny, (eds.) Women’s places: architecture and design 1860-1960. London, U.K. : Routledge. pp. ix-xx. ISBN 041528449x

Sparke, Penny (2001) A modern identity for a new nation: design in Italy since 1860. In: Baranski, Zygmunt G. and West, Rebecca J., (eds.) The Cambridge companion to modern Italian culture. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. pp. 265-281. (Cambridge companions to literature) ISBN 9780521550345

Sparke, Penny (2000) Arco lamp: Achille Castiglioni, 1962. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Munich, Germany : Prestel Verlag. pp. 130-131. ISBN 3791323067

Sparke, Penny (2000) Brionvega radio TS-502: Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, 1964. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Munich, Germany : Prestel Verlag. pp. 134-135. ISBN 3791323067

Sparke, Penny (2000) Cookware to cocktail shakers: the domestication of the aluminium object in the United States, 1900-1939. In: Nichols, Sarah, (ed.) Aluminum by design. Pittsburgh, U.S. : Carnegie Museum of Art. pp. 112-139. ISBN 0810967219

Sparke, Penny (2000) Hill House chair: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1904-08. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Munich, Germany : Prestel Verlag. pp. 16-17. ISBN 3791323067

Sparke, Penny (2000) Mr Chair: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1927. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Germany, Muich : Prestel Verlag. pp. 44-45. ISBN 3791323067

Sparke, Penny (2000) Tizio table lamp: Richard Sapper, 1972. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Munich, Germany : Prestel Verlag. pp. 144-145. ISBN 3791323067

Sparke, Penny (2000) Vespa motor scooter: Corradino d'Ascanio, 1946. In: Albus, Volker , Kras, Reyer and Woodham, Jonathan M., (eds.) Icons of design!: the 20th century. Munich, Germany : Prestel Verlag. pp. 88-89. ISBN 3791323067

Kirkham, Pat and Sparke, Penny (2000) "A woman's place..."?: women interior designers 1900-1950. In: Kirkham, Pat, (ed.) Women designers in the USA 1900-2000; diversity and difference. New Haven, USA : Yale University Press. pp. 305-316. ISBN 0300093314

Sparke, Penny A (1996) Convenience and pleasantness: Josef Frank and the Swedish modern movement in design. In: Stritzler-Levine, Nina, (ed.) Josef Frank, architect and designer: an alternative vision of the modern home. New York, U.S.A : Yale University Press. pp. 118-127. ISBN 0300068999

Conference or Workshop Item

Sparke, Penny (2014) Elsie de Wolfe: a professional interior decorator. In: Society of Architectural Historians 67th Annual Conference; 09-13 Apr 2014, Austin, Texas, U.S.. (Unpublished)

Fisher, Fiona and Sparke, Penny (2014) The Picker House: charting the boundaries of British architectural and interior design practice in the 1960s. In: IDEC 2014 Annual Conference; 6-10 Mar 2014, New Orleans, U.S.A.. (Unpublished)

Sparke, Penny (2009) Design and its history: from modernism to postmodernism. In: Design for the future - the future of design; 03 - 04 Jun 2009, Umea, Sweden. (Unpublished)

Sparke, Penny (2008) Domesticity in post 1945 England and the role of sculpture in the home. In: Sculpture in the home; 05 Dec 2008, Leeds, U.K..

Sparke, Penny [Interviewer] and Simmons, Paul [Interviewee] (2008) Lampshades, curtains, atoms and insects. In: From atoms to patterns; 24 Apr-10 Aug 2008, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Sparke, Penny [Interviewee] and Mom, Gijs [Interviewer] (2007) The female touch in mobility design and its history. In: 5th jubilee conference on the history of transport, traffic & mobility: heritage & design; 25-28 Oct 2007, Helmond, The Netherlands. (Unpublished)

This list was generated on Thu Dec 12 04:31:29 2024 GMT.